Georgia bests South Carolina 74-62

With Georgia up 67-62 and time winding down on the shot clock, J.J. Frazier stepped up and buried a three-pointer from well outside of the top of the key to put a huge nail in South Carolina’s coffin, giving UGA a 70-62 advantage with just 42 seconds remaining.

The Dawgs would go on to win the game 74-62, avenging a pair of regular season losses to the Gamecocks.

Georgia looked like a veteran team on Friday night, managing to hold steady every time South Carolina put together a run. The Dawgs committed only 7 turnovers in this one, and Coach Mark Fox’s team had four players finish in double-figures, with Marcus Thornton leading the way with 15 points.

Maybe the most notable performance of the evening came from freshman Yante Maten, who recorded his first career double-double, scoring 13 points and nabbing 10 rebounds. Maten scored a critical bucket late in the game on a play in which completely sealed his defender, received the ball on the block and then finished with a dunk, giving the Dawgs a 63-58 lead with under 3 minutes to play.

Unlike the previous two games against Carolina, Georgia started well, and they avoided giving the ball away under pressure. UGA’s backcourt trio of Charles Mann, Kenny Gaines and J.J. Frazier combined for a whopping zero turnovers in this contest.

Mann and Neme Djurisic were the other Dawgs’ players to end up in double-digits, scoring 11 and 12 points, respectively.

Despite this win, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has UGA locked in at the 9-seed. However, Georgia’s rematch against #21 Arkansas on Saturday should provide Mark Fox’s team with an opportunity to improve its NCAA seed.

Yet another close game that this year’s highly experienced team gutted out and last year’s team would have likely lost. My hat’s off again to Marcus and Neme for playing like seniors and getting er done, although the more appropriate descriptor last night was T-E- A M. And I’m more than ever confident of my earlier prediction that Yante is going to be a beast down the road.

Today’s game against Arky on ESPN is huge for our NCAA seeding but also huge for our perception nationally. I think its encouraging that Vegas has Arky as only a 1 point favorite on the neutral court today.